The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame was created in 2001 and controlled by Richard Ross K2MGA (sk) and Rich Moseson W2VU of CQ Magazine fame. CQ Magazine has discontinued but the Heritage CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame will continue to honor select qualified individuals. Hamgallery will be the new steward of this award with blessing from Cathy Ross (wife of K2MGA) and Rich W2VU. It will be controlled and reviewed by a select and diverse group of amateurs.
The 2025 inductees to this prestigious award are as follows:
WA3FET, Prof. Jim Breakall. Dr. Breakall's work has been instrumental in Amateur Radio antenna technology development for decades. He has teamed with many experts in the field to develop state-of-the-art advancements with a wide range of applications, including the Numerical Electromagnetic Code (NEC). As a professor of electrical engineering at Penn State University from 1989 to 2022, Dr. Breakall (WA3FET) developed cutting edge antenna technology and mentored his students in Amateur Radio, resulting in 700 new licensees. Now a retired Professor Emeritus, he serves as a consultant to the Army, Air Force, and Navy on many antenna related projects. Using a package designed with his students called NECOPT, he invented the Optimized Wideband Antenna (OWA) Yagi. These OWA Yagi designs have been used in numerous contest and DX stations around the world. Because he wanted this technology to be readily available worldwide, he never pursued patent licensing. He also was the first to use helicopter measurements and Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) techniques for antennas in terrain at HF that left to software such as TA and HFTA. In 2010, Dr. Breakall in conjunction with Joe Taylor (K1JT), Angel Vazquez (WP3R) and Pedro Piza, Jr. (NP4A) collaborated to use the Arecibo 1000 ft dish to do moonbounce (EME). He worked on many antenna designs at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and at the HAARP facility in Alaska. Dr. Breakall has been a frequent forum presenter at the Dayton Hamvention sharing his expertise on antenna design and enthusiasm for Amateur Radio.
As an avid Amateur Radio contester, Dr. Breakall has built contest stations in Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico and participated in over 100 contests, winning a fair amount of them. Dr. Breakall has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles and books. He is an IEEE Life Fellow, a Radio Club of America (RCA) Fellow, and has been awarded the Sarnoff Award, the Dr Ulrich L. Rohde Technical Award, at the RCA, and the Technical Achievement Award at the Dayton Hamvention.
WP3R, Angel M. Vazquez. Angel graduated from CUNY, Brooklyn campus. Worked at WNYC as a radio engineer before moving back to Arecibo and taking a job at the Arecibo Observatory in 1977. Angel worked in telescope operations then headed the IT support team. He accepted the position as Head of Telescope Operations and Puerto Rico Coordination Zone Spectrum Manger. Has been a Volunteer Examiner (VE) for 25 years and started the first Virtual/online Bi-Lingual testing program as part of GLAARG VEC (Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group) of which he is currently the group session manager. There has been well over 500 online VE testing sessions resulting in a couple thousand new radio amateurs. He headed the moonbounce effort from the Arecibo Observatory in April 2010 (QST cover August 2010) and multiple special event transmissions from the observatory Control Room using the KP4AO club call, of which he is the president and trustee. He has presented numerous talks on the Arecibo Observatory and his Amateur Radio experiences at the Dayton Hamvention Antenna Forums, RCA Speaker series, HamSci Conventions and multiple Amateur Radio Clubs around the world. He was awarded Puerto Rico Amateur of the Year in 2017.
Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico in total darkness and loss of all cell and internet communications. Since his station survived, Angel provided emergency communications every day for 8 weeks for hundreds of families and first responders between Puerto Rico and the mainland. With the help of the WWROF, Angel delivered generators to needy ham families in Puerto Rico. These efforts earned him the Yasme Excellence Award in 2019. In 2021, Angel was the Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year. Angel currently is the Puerto Rico Coordination Zone Administrator, managed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in a joint effort with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
N6NB, Wayne Overbeck, Ph.D SK. Wayne was co-inventor of the Quagi antenna, which is part quad, part Yagi.
Wayne was active in amateur radio for over 68 years. He served four terms as Vice Director for the ARRL Southwestern Division, from 1984 to 1993, and was chairman of the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee during the 1970's, as well as an ARRL Life Member. “As K6YNB, Wayne began mountain-topping on both the west and east coasts in a camper truck outfitted with radios, antennas, and amplifiers (known as the “Cabover Kilowatt”) and, by 1980, had a dozen national first-place finishes in VHF+ contests, setting scoring records that were never broken under the pre-grid scoring system. Overbeck received the ARRL Technical Excellence Award in 1977. He received the John Chambers Memorial Award from the Central States VHF Society twice, first in 1978, and again in 2015. He was honored as Radio Amateur of the Year at the Dayton Hamvention® in 1980. Overbeck was an accomplished journalist, communications law professor, lawyer, real estate broker, 20-year author of a widely-adopted textbook, pilot, sailor, cabin-builder, computer programmer, and amateur radio engineer.
73, Tom K8CX
The 2025 inductees to this prestigious award are as follows:
WA3FET, Prof. Jim Breakall. Dr. Breakall's work has been instrumental in Amateur Radio antenna technology development for decades. He has teamed with many experts in the field to develop state-of-the-art advancements with a wide range of applications, including the Numerical Electromagnetic Code (NEC). As a professor of electrical engineering at Penn State University from 1989 to 2022, Dr. Breakall (WA3FET) developed cutting edge antenna technology and mentored his students in Amateur Radio, resulting in 700 new licensees. Now a retired Professor Emeritus, he serves as a consultant to the Army, Air Force, and Navy on many antenna related projects. Using a package designed with his students called NECOPT, he invented the Optimized Wideband Antenna (OWA) Yagi. These OWA Yagi designs have been used in numerous contest and DX stations around the world. Because he wanted this technology to be readily available worldwide, he never pursued patent licensing. He also was the first to use helicopter measurements and Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) techniques for antennas in terrain at HF that left to software such as TA and HFTA. In 2010, Dr. Breakall in conjunction with Joe Taylor (K1JT), Angel Vazquez (WP3R) and Pedro Piza, Jr. (NP4A) collaborated to use the Arecibo 1000 ft dish to do moonbounce (EME). He worked on many antenna designs at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and at the HAARP facility in Alaska. Dr. Breakall has been a frequent forum presenter at the Dayton Hamvention sharing his expertise on antenna design and enthusiasm for Amateur Radio.
As an avid Amateur Radio contester, Dr. Breakall has built contest stations in Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico and participated in over 100 contests, winning a fair amount of them. Dr. Breakall has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles and books. He is an IEEE Life Fellow, a Radio Club of America (RCA) Fellow, and has been awarded the Sarnoff Award, the Dr Ulrich L. Rohde Technical Award, at the RCA, and the Technical Achievement Award at the Dayton Hamvention.
WP3R, Angel M. Vazquez. Angel graduated from CUNY, Brooklyn campus. Worked at WNYC as a radio engineer before moving back to Arecibo and taking a job at the Arecibo Observatory in 1977. Angel worked in telescope operations then headed the IT support team. He accepted the position as Head of Telescope Operations and Puerto Rico Coordination Zone Spectrum Manger. Has been a Volunteer Examiner (VE) for 25 years and started the first Virtual/online Bi-Lingual testing program as part of GLAARG VEC (Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group) of which he is currently the group session manager. There has been well over 500 online VE testing sessions resulting in a couple thousand new radio amateurs. He headed the moonbounce effort from the Arecibo Observatory in April 2010 (QST cover August 2010) and multiple special event transmissions from the observatory Control Room using the KP4AO club call, of which he is the president and trustee. He has presented numerous talks on the Arecibo Observatory and his Amateur Radio experiences at the Dayton Hamvention Antenna Forums, RCA Speaker series, HamSci Conventions and multiple Amateur Radio Clubs around the world. He was awarded Puerto Rico Amateur of the Year in 2017.
Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico in total darkness and loss of all cell and internet communications. Since his station survived, Angel provided emergency communications every day for 8 weeks for hundreds of families and first responders between Puerto Rico and the mainland. With the help of the WWROF, Angel delivered generators to needy ham families in Puerto Rico. These efforts earned him the Yasme Excellence Award in 2019. In 2021, Angel was the Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year. Angel currently is the Puerto Rico Coordination Zone Administrator, managed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in a joint effort with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
N6NB, Wayne Overbeck, Ph.D SK. Wayne was co-inventor of the Quagi antenna, which is part quad, part Yagi.
Wayne was active in amateur radio for over 68 years. He served four terms as Vice Director for the ARRL Southwestern Division, from 1984 to 1993, and was chairman of the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee during the 1970's, as well as an ARRL Life Member. “As K6YNB, Wayne began mountain-topping on both the west and east coasts in a camper truck outfitted with radios, antennas, and amplifiers (known as the “Cabover Kilowatt”) and, by 1980, had a dozen national first-place finishes in VHF+ contests, setting scoring records that were never broken under the pre-grid scoring system. Overbeck received the ARRL Technical Excellence Award in 1977. He received the John Chambers Memorial Award from the Central States VHF Society twice, first in 1978, and again in 2015. He was honored as Radio Amateur of the Year at the Dayton Hamvention® in 1980. Overbeck was an accomplished journalist, communications law professor, lawyer, real estate broker, 20-year author of a widely-adopted textbook, pilot, sailor, cabin-builder, computer programmer, and amateur radio engineer.
73, Tom K8CX